Robert E. Lee: American Hero, Much & Erroneously Maligned

Today is the birth date of Robert E. Lee, Commander of the Army of the Confederate States of America. At West Point, he graduated at the top of his class and, along with only 5 other cadets, he shared the distinction of never having received any demerits and fought alongside many other famed military men of his time in the Mexican-American War. Contrary to popular misconception, he grew up in tight financial circumstances as a result of his father’s early death and he never owned slaves. When asked by Lincoln to command the Union Army, he resigned his commission and returned to his home in Virginia, saying that he could not pick up arms against his family, friends and homeland.

In view of the current political climate wherein State Sovereignty, 10th Amendment and Enumerated Powers issues have once again risen to the forefront, Robert E. Lee’s life, record and performance is all the more relevant, begging further study of the facts and not the myths fashioned by Union apologists. Although he never owned slaves, his wife’s home in Arlington, Virginia became a cemetery during the War Between the States–after Congress, in June of 1862, passed a law that empowered commissioners to assess and collect taxes on real estate in “insurrectionary districts.” The statute was meant not only to raise revenue for the war, but also to punish turncoats like Lee. If the taxes were not paid in person, commissioners were authorized to sell the land.

The auction took place on January 11, 1864, a day so cold that blocks of ice stopped boat traffic on the Potomac. The sole bid came from the federal government, which offered $26,800, well under the estate’s assessed value of $34,100. According to the certificate of sale, Arlington’s new owner intended to reserve the property “for Government use, for war, military, charitable and educational purposes.”

It is indeed true that it is always the victors who write history to their own specifications, and the Union, and now the Liberal Left, continue to substantiate this. Looking in Wikipedia for statistics on any given issue, one constantly finds redactions made by left-leaning partisans, replaced with mis- or dis-information with the expected bias. In the North, never ever has Lee’s date of birth been mentioned, let alone honored. And now, in the year 2010, the date of his birth is nowhere in site on any calendar. Like the December 7th date of the Pearl Harbor attack, this honored American has been cast out by the New World Order crowd and supplanted by so many irrelevant appeasements like the Muslim New Year in the Publix Market calendar.

Canada Free Press, bless them, also did a piece by Calvin E. Johnson on Robert E. Lee this week; they, unlike so many, are always willing to publish facts at the risk of being disliked by the Left and the Uninformed. They, like World Net Daily, deserve our patronage and respect, simply because they eschew the Party Line in favor of the truth–a concept long forgotten by mainstream media.

The bottom line is that we need to continue our efforts to learn, speak and share the facts, irrespective of what we would like or need them to be. It is dishonorable to try and spin the truth to one’s own devices, and Robert E. Lee, unlike so many of the politicians, corporations and media today, would never have done such a thing.

Franklin Delano Roosevelt in 1936 stated that, indeed, Lee was “one of our greatest American gentlemen.” Indeed, from his position as Commandant of West Point to General of the Confederates States Army to president of Washington and Lee College, he conducted himself always with honor. We can all take a lesson from his example. Can you imagine what kind of world we would have if everyone shared his level of integrity?

And, too, we must not forget the words of Booker T. Washington, America’s great Black-American Educator, who said,

“The first white people in America, certainly the first in the South to exhibit their interest in the reaching of the Negro and saving his soul through the medium of the Sunday-school were Robert E. Lee and Stonewall Jackson.”

Let’s not forget those who made our nation great!

Rest In Peace, General Lee.

Tuesday, Jan. 19, is the legal holiday honoring the birth of Robert E. Lee, who was born Jan. 19, 1807, in Virginia. This column, written by Gordon Cotton, has been featured previously in The Vicksburg Post.

Robert E. Lee was a hero’s hero and a general’s general whose portrait hung on the wall of the office of the president of the United States. Dwight David Eisenhower — himself a hero and a general — was the president, and for his admiration of Gen. Lee he was called to task by a New York dentist on Aug. 1, 1960. The original correspondence is housed in the Eisenhower Library in Abilene, Kan.

The letter from the dentist:

Dear Mr. President:

At the Republican Convention I heard you mention that you have the pictures of four (4) great Americans in your office, and that included in these a picture of Robert E. Lee. I do not understand how any American can include Robert E. Lee as a person to be emulated, and why the President of the United States of America should do so is certainly beyond me. The most outstanding (thing) that Robert E. Lee did, was to devote his best efforts to the destruction of the United States Government, and I am sure that you do not say that a person who tries to destroy our Government is worthy of being hailed as one of our heroes. Will you please tell me just why you hold him in such high esteem?

Eisenhower answered the next week from the White House, writing the following letter:

Dear Mr. Scott:

Respecting your August 1 inquiry calling attention to my often expressed admiration for General Robert E. Lee, I would say, first, that we need to understand that at the time of the War Between the States the issue of Secession had remained unresolved…for more than 70 years. Men of probity, character, public standing and unquestioned loyalty, both North and South, had disagreed over this issue as a matter of principle from the day our Constitution was adopted. General Robert E. Lee was, in my estimation, one of the supremely gifted men produced by our Nation. He believed unswervingly in the Constitutional validity of his cause which until 1865 was still an arguable question in America; he was thoughtful yet demanding of his officers and men, forbearing with captured enemies but ingenious, unrelenting and personally courageous in battle, and never disheartened by a reverse or obstacle. Through all his many trials, he remained selfless almost to a fault and unfailing in his belief in God. Taken altogether, he was noble as a leader and as a man, and unsullied as I read the pages of our history. From deep conviction I simply say this: a nation of men of Lee’s caliber would be unconquerable in spirit and soul. Indeed, to the degree that present-day American youth will strive to emulate his rare qualities, including his devotion to this land as revealed in his painstaking efforts to help heal the nation’s wounds once the bitter struggle was over, we, in our own time of danger in a divided world, will be strengthened and our love of freedom sustained. Such are the reasons that I proudly display the picture of this great American on my office wall.

Sincerely,

Dwight D. Eisenhower

The qualities he exemplified in life are well worth emulating, just as President Eisenhower believed. Is it any wonder that the Congress of the United States voted several years ago to restore, posthumously, the citizenship of Robert E. Lee? If they had not, how could the United States have claimed such a great Confederate leader?

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[…] Today is the birth date of Robert E. Lee, Commander of the Army of the Confederate States of America. At West Point, he graduated at the top of his class and, along with only 5 other cadets, he shared the distinction of never having received any demerits and fought alongside many other famed military men of his time in the Mexican-American War. Con … Read More […]